Democrat and Chronicle du lieu suivant : Rochester, New York • Page 11

DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE Purrfect! Fancy cats were on display in Henrietta, Page 3B. SECTION 2B I DEATHS 3B LOCAL NEWS SB I STATE NEWS ROCHESTER, NEW YORK DetnocratandChronicle.com MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2007 mm (ogonifi mamr. But after months of study most on council remain undecided. tion's position carries weight, but the edge given to Monroe going in has disappeared. The goal remains to resolve the matter with a vote next month affecting which ambulance is sent to your home when you call 911.

RuralMetro has taken those calls for the past 19 years. But the administration is unwavering in its recommendation for change, and Deputy Mayor Patty Malgieri said she has "very strong concerns" about the review. Duffy proposed in June that the city change ambulance service providers. The contract periodically is put out for open bidding, and the city had an internal committee of experts including 911 Director John Merklinger and then-Fire Chief Floyd Madison re- view the proposals. Duffy wrote City Council that the committee unanimously backed Monroe, which promised faster response times, a fleet of new ambulances and the ability to interconnect its computer systems with the city.

Some of the committee's criteria and judgments have since been countered by other experts and council probing, how- STORYCHATCQ DEM0CRATANDCHR0NICLE.COM What do you think about the proposed switch of ambulance service providers? Click on this story to share your opinion. ever, and RuralMetro has clarified its proposal. The result is two almost AMBULANCE, PAGE 2 BRIAN SHARP STAFF WRITER When Mayor Robert Duffy proposed switching the city's preferred ambulance service provider from RuralMetro to Monroe Ambulance this summer, it caught many by surprise. Four months later, key factors used to support the administration's recommendation have been minimized or nullified by a City Council review of the proposal. Most council members say they remain undecided.

They say the administra a i $2 million gift adds optics labs to UR hall i 1 JAY CAPERS staff photographer Kathryn Gardner, 11, of Spencerport, left, and Blessing Glover, 11, of Rochester present their robot during a program Sunday sponsored by the Women in Engineering program at Rochester Institute of Technology. Future female engineers take on robotic challenge NEWS BEAT Shooting at bar accidental An 18-year-old man is accused of accidentally shooting a woman at a Chili bar early Sunday. Emanuel Dejesus of Norran Street in Rochester was charged with criminal use of a weapon and first-degree assault after he allegedly shot an 18-year-old woman about 1 a.m. Sunday at the Landing Strip Tavern on Scottsville Road, said Monroe County Sheriff's spokesman John Heifer. According to investigators, Dejesus apparently was guarding the bathroom door for a female acquaintance.

He then opened the door to check on her when his illegal firearm reportedly discharged, grazing her head. The injured woman left the bar with friends and went to Strong Memorial Hospital. Her injuries were not considered serious. Dejesus was arraigned in Chili Town Court on Sunday morning and remanded to Monroe County Jail in lieu of $1,000 cash, $2,000 bond. Fairport school to open today FAIRPORT -With classrooms, playgrounds and school buses clean, Northside Elementary School students will resume a normal schedule today after district officials learned Friday that a student had been infected with an antibiotic-resistant strain of staph, principal Carolyn Shea said Sunday.

As part of national Red Ribbon Week, a drug prevention program, North-side Elementary students will learn about healthy living habits, including proper hand-washing methods, Shea said. A staph infection can be spread through skin-to-skin contact, cuts or scrapes in the skin, or by coming in contact with surfaces with staph on them. Rochester ties record high The thermometer reached 80 degrees in Rochester on Sunday, tying a record set in 1884. Today's high temperature will probably come close to its record high of 82 degrees set in 1979, said Tom Paone, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Buffalo. "We've been in this very nice pattern," Paone said, "but it's obviously going to change.

We know that." Expect temperatures to dramatically dip as the weather becomes more seasonal the rest of the week. Tuesday will be the transitional day, Paone said, with the high temperature falling to about 60 degrees and in the mid-to upper 50s the rest of the week. Forecast, Page 6B. You could be a citizen blogger Do you have opinions about local events and topics that affect your neighborhood or community? If so, you could become a citizen blogger. We currently are looking for citizen bloggers from Pittsford, Irondequoit and Rochester.

For more information, call Cynthia Benjamin at (585) 258-2322. said. The $2 million gift will help fund the new faculty, as well as pay for the new optical fabrication equipment. Engineers and students will research anything that has to do with manipulating light, including lenses and the design of optical lasers, Sherwood said. He said there are many possibilities to what can be developed at the new center, including chips for digital photography.

While nothing has been officially set yet, Sherwood said he wouldn't be surprised if Eastman Kodak Co. and Bausch Lomb Inc. form a partnership with the Hopkins Center. "They all have connections with optics," he said. Goergen Hall was opened earlier this year on the edge of UR's River Campus within walking distance of the UR Medical Center.

The $37.7 million hall had left some space reserved for what officials were hoping would be an area dedicated to just design and engineering of optics, Sherwood said. "Internally, this is a really big deal," he said. CLVARGASDemocratandChronicle.com CLAUDIA VARGAS STAFF WRITER The University of Rochester's Institute of Optics will soon be filling some empty space at the new Robert B. Goergen Hall for Biomedical Engineering and Optics with three labs dedicated to optical design and engineering. The three labs will make up the newly funded $2 million Robert E.

Hopkins Center for Optical Design and Engineering. The Hopkins Center, a gift from former Corning Tropel Corp. President John H. Bruning, honors the achievements of Robert E. Hopkins, director of the Institute from 1954 to 1965, who is known as the "father of optical engineering." The center is slated to be ready in early spring, said spokesman Jonathan Sherwood, and will be used by engineers, faculty and students.

"It is for engineers to explore optics, but 50 percent is for students and teaching them hands-on," Sherwood said. The center will house some existing faculty and bring in a few new full-time engineers, Sherwood WE a RIT i JAMES HAWVER STAFF WRITER HENRIETTA The next generation of female engineers showed off their robotic creations Sunday afternoon at Rochester Institute of Technology's Kate Gleason School of Engineering. One by one, duos and trios of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade girls brought their shoebox-sized robots to the front of the Xerox Auditorium and showed their parents and fellow campers how they built and programmed their machines to whiz around in response to touch, noise, motion and light. The demonstration was the culmination of a two-day camp, during which the 34 girls learned about the basics of engineering from RIT students and professors. "The goal is to increase the number of women who go into engineering," said Margaret Bailey, associate professor of mechanical engineer and executive director of WERIT, the college's Women in Engineering program.

When the program started in 2004, it reached only about a few hundred young women. Now, the members of WERIT work with about 1,500 middle and high school students across Monroe County Through the college's Women in Engineering program, RIT students and faculty members teach middle and high school girls through hands-on workshops throughout the year. For more information, go to www.rit.edu-women. STORYCHATCh DEM0CRATANDCHR0NICLE.COM Do you know of more programs that aim to interest girls and young women in traditionally male-dominated fields? Click on this story to join the discussion. Christine Lowry, a 20-year-old mechanical engineering major, ran one of the computer labs where she showed the campers the basics of the software they used to program their robots.

Mandy Ogden, 11, of Penfield signed up for the program after she heard about it from her sixth-grade science teacher at Bay Trail Middle School in Penfield. Mandy and her fellow members of the "Moons" team built motion, touch and sound sensors into their robot. JHAWVERDerrracratawlChronicle.com Dogs doll up for Halloween JAY CAPERS staff photographer A middle school student starts her robot during a presentation ceremony of the pre-engineering program for girls at Rochester Institute of Technology. through visits to schools and camps at the college. The programs are just as beneficial to the college students as they are for the kids and teens they work with, said Julie Olney, the program's coordinator.

CLAUDIA VARGAS STAFF WRITER A devil twirled around while her master held a lollipop in the air and a cheerleader shook her behind as she walked past the judges. The pug costume judges, that is. During the fourth annual Rochester Canine Play-group's Howl-o-Ween, dogs of all kinds and sizes participated in costume contests and other Hallow: een activities with their owners. "It's a very nice social atmosphere for the dogs and for us (dog owners) as well," said Playgroup founder Tara Gamby. The event was divided into three sessions Sunday a pugs-only group, small dogs and big dogs.

Even though the devil Giving Back She felt called to help Sage House member, Daisy, a 6-month-old pug that joined in the fun dressed as a carrot. "She likes dressing up, she'll do anything for food," Tessier, 42, said, adding that she gives Pearl lots of treats for dressing up. Howl-o-Ween was a fundraiser for different animal shelters such as Pug Rescue of Central New York and the Wayne County Humane Society, and for the Monroe County Dog Parks Fund, Gamby said. She added that the canine playgroup hosts many events, especially for holidays, to provide a place for dogs and owners to come together. "We don't have dog parks yet (in Rochester), so there isn't much for them to do," Gamby said.

She is even planning a sixth birthday party for her pug, Zena. "For a lot of us, this is what we do," she said. "We love our dogs." Some dog owners, such as Rose Preston, 56, of Rochester, enjoy completely spoiling their pets with the latest in dog fashion. Preston's pug, Lele, went from a big spider costume to her bare body and some pink pearls. "She's got more jewelry than I do," Preston said.

CLVARGASDemocratandChronicle.com pug, Earl, amazed the crowd with his twirling skills, it was baby Yoda, or Dinky, a 1-year-old pug, that won the pug costume contest. About the series This is one of a series of profiles of volunteers from community service agencies in the Rochester region. If you would like to recommend a volunteer to be profiled, please send contact information and a description of the volunteer's activities to to find an opportunity to help others with the same issues. A few days later came news stories about the opening of Sage House, and she decided she would go to the facility's open house and find a way to help. She thought she could help by parrfpering the women, and she stresses the pampering part.

"I talked to them and made sure they CATHERINE ROBERTS STAFF WRITER From the time she saw that Sage House was opening, Jodi Beutel knew that she wanted to help as a volunteer. But the residential facility for women recovering from eating disorders needed volunteers in the evenings and weekends. Beutel, with three children, felt she needed to be with her family during those times. So Beutel kept in touch, said Jennifer Dry DeSanto, coordinator of Sage House, part of DePaul Community Services. And finally, Beutel came up with an answer.

Beutel of Fairport is a co-owner of Artistic Designs Hair Salon on Park Avenue and offered to give the women at Sage House free salon visits for the length of their stays. "Every time patients returned, The pug costumes ranged from skeletons to a giant spider. Some were store-bought and others were homemade. Provided photo For Jodi Beutel of Fairport, helping Sage House is something that helps her as well. they have nothing but nice things to say," Dry DeSanto said.

Beutel said she knew she was meant to help the women at Sage House. She suffered from an eating disorder when she was younger and said to her husband that she wanted COMING UP Parents send a message Health care workers take action to send a message about the importance of educatioa In Tuesday's Democrat and Chronicle Sue Tessier of Gates said she usually tries to make costumes for her 8-year-old pug, Pearl, decked out as a lobster Sunday and now for new family SAGE HOUSE, PAGE 2.